Reading Wednesday and Other News
Oct. 23rd, 2019 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseReading stuff, first. Last week I read the tankoban of Blue Exorcist, Volumes 21 and 22, by Kazue Kato, which is probably all for the good because the plot is rushing towards some level of conclusion and I've been having trouble keeping all the players and their various agendas straight, as I read the monthly scanlations.
After a late night conversation withnaomikritzer after my yaoi panel, I started wondering if the same sorts of jobs that make appearances in Western (or at least American) porn, were the same in Japan. I was specifically thinking of the scenario where one calls for the plumber/handyman and you end up banging. Baka-Updates, which is a fairly exhaustive catalogue of manga, including ones without pirated scans or English-language release, had NO CATAGORY for "plumber." I found several fire fighter yaoi (one, technically a 'bara' title)i, though far more seinen that seemed to specifically be historical.I didn't try any of the historical ones, though I might, since I'm curious if there's a specific time period that is attractive to manga writers for whatever reason. What I did read was: Jounetsu no Young Man by Takahashi Yuu (which only has two chapters devoted to fire fighters,) and Fire Code by Ichikawa Kazuhide. (If you're curious what I thought of them, I have provided links to my Mangakast review site.)
Under the tag of "handyman," I found and read Simple Days by Miyamoto Kano. Handyman (benriya) does seem to mean something slightly different, which I sort of knew from my days of reading Gangsta.When I think of a handyman, I imagine someone (who isn't always a man) who wears a tool belt and is good with their hands, ie., skilled in physical labor trades, like carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, etc. What handyman seems to mean in Japan is something more akin to "jack of all trades," but heavier on the "just a person you hire for odd jobs," like if you need help lifting furniture, rather than painting your house or something that requires a trade skill. The difference is subtle, but distinct, I think.
With Gaylaxicon and my writing deadline, that's about all the reading I managed last week, alas.
The other big news of the day is that Eleanor and I went to go visit Terry Garey at Walker Methodist. Thanks to a conversation withpegkerr at Gaylaxicon, I was expecting things to be more grim than Denny might have been letting on in Terry's Caring Bridge journal. Even so, I wasn't quite prepared by how bad off Terry really is. I *think* she knew who we were? She did seem to want to engage Eleanor and I in conversation and we got a clear "hello?" when we knocked on the door, but she drifted in and out quite a bit and the babbling was really disconcerting. I was expecting trouble with language, but there was something about this that felt very disconnected? Like, I knew she might not hit the words she was aiming for, but I was expecting a more concerted effort? Like, I might be able to tell what she was trying to say, like when you accidentally say 'sunshine' when you mean 'orange' or something of that nature. No, this was very different, not like the wires were crossed, but more unplugged, almost entirely disconnected, except for the occasional word that might come through, though it was never clear if even THAT word was intended.
At one point, when Eleanor asked if there was anything Terry needed, her lips moved and it seemed as though she might cry.
It was awful.
Eleanor and I had to go out to lunch afterwards to debrief and decompress. Despite everything, I'm glad we went. We have plans to try to go back every other week or so, just to see her and keep her (and Denny) company. Denny was actually out today because he had a dentist appointment or some such. In someways that made it harder, because we had no sense of if her reactions were normal or not.
Ugh.
Anyway, after all that, I'm not expecting to get much writing done tonight. I have to go pick up Mason from work tonight (he's at the Science Museum until 7 pm) but after that I expect to space out to Solitare or possibly I will amuse myself by hunting up other odd-job related yaoi/manga. I didn't pick up a new series at the library, which perhaps I will try out while soaking in a hot bath.
After a late night conversation with
naomikritzer after my yaoi panel, I started wondering if the same sorts of jobs that make appearances in Western (or at least American) porn, were the same in Japan. I was specifically thinking of the scenario where one calls for the plumber/handyman and you end up banging. Baka-Updates, which is a fairly exhaustive catalogue of manga, including ones without pirated scans or English-language release, had NO CATAGORY for "plumber." I found several fire fighter yaoi (one, technically a 'bara' title)i, though far more seinen that seemed to specifically be historical.I didn't try any of the historical ones, though I might, since I'm curious if there's a specific time period that is attractive to manga writers for whatever reason. What I did read was: Jounetsu no Young Man by Takahashi Yuu (which only has two chapters devoted to fire fighters,) and Fire Code by Ichikawa Kazuhide. (If you're curious what I thought of them, I have provided links to my Mangakast review site.) Under the tag of "handyman," I found and read Simple Days by Miyamoto Kano. Handyman (benriya) does seem to mean something slightly different, which I sort of knew from my days of reading Gangsta.When I think of a handyman, I imagine someone (who isn't always a man) who wears a tool belt and is good with their hands, ie., skilled in physical labor trades, like carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, etc. What handyman seems to mean in Japan is something more akin to "jack of all trades," but heavier on the "just a person you hire for odd jobs," like if you need help lifting furniture, rather than painting your house or something that requires a trade skill. The difference is subtle, but distinct, I think.
With Gaylaxicon and my writing deadline, that's about all the reading I managed last week, alas.
The other big news of the day is that Eleanor and I went to go visit Terry Garey at Walker Methodist. Thanks to a conversation with
pegkerr at Gaylaxicon, I was expecting things to be more grim than Denny might have been letting on in Terry's Caring Bridge journal. Even so, I wasn't quite prepared by how bad off Terry really is. I *think* she knew who we were? She did seem to want to engage Eleanor and I in conversation and we got a clear "hello?" when we knocked on the door, but she drifted in and out quite a bit and the babbling was really disconcerting. I was expecting trouble with language, but there was something about this that felt very disconnected? Like, I knew she might not hit the words she was aiming for, but I was expecting a more concerted effort? Like, I might be able to tell what she was trying to say, like when you accidentally say 'sunshine' when you mean 'orange' or something of that nature. No, this was very different, not like the wires were crossed, but more unplugged, almost entirely disconnected, except for the occasional word that might come through, though it was never clear if even THAT word was intended.At one point, when Eleanor asked if there was anything Terry needed, her lips moved and it seemed as though she might cry.
It was awful.
Eleanor and I had to go out to lunch afterwards to debrief and decompress. Despite everything, I'm glad we went. We have plans to try to go back every other week or so, just to see her and keep her (and Denny) company. Denny was actually out today because he had a dentist appointment or some such. In someways that made it harder, because we had no sense of if her reactions were normal or not.
Ugh.
Anyway, after all that, I'm not expecting to get much writing done tonight. I have to go pick up Mason from work tonight (he's at the Science Museum until 7 pm) but after that I expect to space out to Solitare or possibly I will amuse myself by hunting up other odd-job related yaoi/manga. I didn't pick up a new series at the library, which perhaps I will try out while soaking in a hot bath.
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Date: 2019-10-26 09:13 am (UTC)